Brent Pollard
Why Ezekiel 23 Is Still Relevant Today
Some Scripture, like Ezekiel 23, is similar to opening a furnace door. You are met with scorching heat and flame, not pleasantries. The pictures God paints are fierce and even shocking. God calls Samaria and Jerusalem “two sisters” who are “unfaithful,” revealing the spiritual adultery of Israel and Judah. This chapter is full of judgment, sorrow, betrayal, and holy indignation. We need to fully understand and feel the depth of God’s anger and heartbreak.
God doesn’t give just a symbol. He tells a tragic story about spiritual infidelity. Those whom He loved and nurtured turned their backs on Him to chase after paramours. There is a sobering revelation in the sisters’ names that you cannot ignore: even as Jerusalem played the harlot, her very name served as a reminder that God’s dwelling place was supposed to be within her.
The names of the two sisters are Oholah and Oholibah.
Samaria, the northern kingdom, is called Oholah, or “her own tent.” Jerusalem is Oholibah, meaning “My tent is in her.” The linguistic shift is critical because it exposes the root of their sins: while Samaria operated under self-governed worship, Jerusalem betrayed an actual divine indwelling.
Israel strayed from the path God had chosen, establishing rival shrines at Dan and Bethel to forge a separate religious identity under the rival king, Jeroboam. Oholah chose her own way, yet this separation did not exempt her from wrath. Conversely, Judah stuck with the kingly lineage of the man after God’s own heart, maintained the temple and the ordinances of God’s presence. Thus, Oholibah could rightly claim that the divine Council dwelt directly within her borders, rather than remaining at a distance.
The privilege of hosting God’s presence sharpened the distinction. But for Oholibah, that very honor made her unfaithfulness worse than her sister’s. The contrast is not simply about privilege but about the growing burden of responsibility and guilt.
When Holy Privileges Become Heavy Guilt
Ezekiel 23 demonstrates that proximity to holy things is not the same as true holiness. You can live by a river and die of thirst. Judah had God’s altar and name, but her heart pined for idols. The most dangerous place sometimes is an empty pew with a wandering heart.
You can be devoted to all kinds of things and not be in agreement with God. Everyone puts up a tent, but it matters whose tent it is and who lives in it.
The Temple of God Is Not of Stone
This truth deeply informs the New Testament. In this new covenant, God’s presence is no longer confined to a stone temple in Jerusalem but now dwells within His people. He underlines this by reminding the church, “Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). He also asserts, “Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you” (1 Corinthians 6.19).
Think about that for a moment: the God whom even heaven itself cannot contain (1 Kings 8.27) chooses to live in redeemed people. We were made to carry His presence and to rejoice in Him alone, not just to know about God. God still separates the outwardly religious from those in whom He truly dwells.
How Do You Enter God’s Presence? The answer from Acts 2:38.
This difference is not based on emotions, background, sincerity, or spiritual claims. The line is drawn in the New Testament by entrance into Christ. On Pentecost, the convicted asked, “What shall we do?” Peter did not send them off on private religious quests. He said, “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus for forgiveness. And you will receive the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2.38). The promise is simple: forgiveness and Spirit.
Baptism is not an empty rite. It’s the transition from the old life to the new life in Christ. Through baptism we are joined with His death, buried with Him, and raised to live anew (Romans 6.3–4). “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Galatians 3.27). God’s presence dwells in us only in Christ.
The Holy Spirit: God’s Pledge, Seal, and Guarantee
Paul uses marketplace language for a treasure in heaven. God “sealed us and put the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge” (2 Corinthians 1.22). Jesus’ followers are “marked with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is the pledge of our inheritance” (Ephesians 1:13–14). The Spirit is our guarantee, an indication of what God still has for us. Earnest money guarantees a sale; the Spirit guarantees our inheritance. God has put heaven into us, as His bond, promising to bring us home.
Being a Christian isn’t just choosing a religion like choosing a hobby or neighborhood. Rather, a Christian is one in whom God dwells. There is no greater honor and joy on earth than to be the home of the Almighty.
Living Like the Temple You Were Born
Ezekiel reminds us that we must not make light of this truth. Oholibah kept the house of God, but lived for another. This is a warning to us. God’s presence is not an invitation to complacency, but to holiness. The Spirit comforts us and guarantees our inheritance, but He is also the Holy Spirit who leads us into holy living through Providence and the Word.
We have to face this truth every day. We cannot say “God dwells in me” and make peace with idols at the same time. We cannot take the old tent and re-arrange it to follow Christ. Simply rearranging things is not repentance. Sin cannot be a welcome guest in the temple of God. A temple is only for one thing: to honor the One Who fills it.
Leave Your Own Tent.
The question Ezekiel 23 asks is not just, “Which sister are you?” Its message questions us: Is God really dwelling in you, or are you still clinging to your own tent, the confines of your self-made faith? If you have His Spirit dwelling in you, are you living in all things as the temple of God? This is the ongoing problem and main point of Ezekiel 23.
The gospel does not call us to set up our own tents and ask God’s blessing. Rather, it calls us out of our own tent, into Christ. In baptism, sins are washed away, the old self dies, new life starts, and the Spirit is given. The Christian life is not a life of self-will, but of becoming a proper vessel for the Lord.
Oholah tells us not to make religion in our image. Oholibah is an example of how enjoying sacred privileges cannot excuse unholy living. Christ calls us higher. To be wholly His. Washed. Sealed. Indwelt. Sanctified. God has not been distant; He has placed His Spirit in us as a guarantee.
Let us not retreat into our tents, but live as those in whom God dwells, carrying His presence with intentionality, showing His holiness in all we do, and showing the world what it means to be truly His. Let our lives be temples, not only honored by His presence but changed by it, boldly announcing: God lives here.
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